Caleb Neelon

Motivational Baggage 2006  Mills Gallery  Boston, MA

Street/Graffiti/Mural Artist
Wednesday, October 16, 2013

6pm-7:30pm

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Biography

http://calebneelon.com

As a thirteen-year-old in February of 1990, Caleb Neelon visited family friends in small-town Germany with his mother and took a side trip to Berlin. For Neelon, the sight of the newly opened Berlin Wall, covered in graffiti and murals was a revelation. By the mid 1990s, Neelon was immersed in the global graffiti scene under the name SONIK. He traveled constantly and developed a vivid, homespun, and raw style of mixed media painting. He freely crossed boundaries between graffiti, murals, and what would soon be referred to as street art. At the same time, he wrote in-depth articles for graffiti fanzines. As years passed, these publications evolved into art and popular culture magazines, trade books, and feature films.

Caleb Neelon’s bright, folksy works, frequently incorporating nautical and quilting motifs, can be seen in gallery and museum exhibitions and on walls around the world. In addition to visiting artist talks and programs, Neelon’s work ranges from cultural diplomacy projects through the U.S. State Department; curatorial advisory work at museums, projects bringing artwork to hospitals, and public artwork projects in over thirty countries around the globe. Neelon regularly writes for national magazines and is the author of several books, among them the landmark 2011 HarperCollins release The History of American Graffiti, which he co-authored with Roger Gastman. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Ellen, baby daughter ZZ, and French bulldog Ferdinand.

Major Accomplishments

Caleb Neelon’s artwork has been featured in exhibitions worldwide including the V1 Gallery in Cophenhagen, Denmark, the Dafen Art Museum in Shenzhen, China, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, the LES Gallery in Vancouver, Canada, and Space 1026 in Phildelphia, PA.

In 2012 Caleb Neelon installed a mural project in Istanbul and Antakya Turkey, initiated by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

By special commission of the First Lady of Honduras, the United Nations Development Project, and the United States Embassy, Caleb Neelon participated in the 2004 Art for All, project in Tegucigulpa, Honduras.

Neelon was part of several mural invitational projects including Wedding Walls in Berlin, Germany and Arte Para Todos in Poligono San Pablo in Seville, Spain.

In 2011 Neelon completed an artist residency at Pforzheimer House in Harvard University.